The Funeral Driver

A passenger in a taxi leaned over to ask the driver a question. He gently tapped him on the shoulder to get his attention. The driver screamed, lost control of the cab, nearly slipped off the road and stopped just inches from falling into a pit aside. For a few moments everything was silent in the cab.

Then, the still shaking driver said, “Are you OK? I’m so sorry, but you scared the daylights out of me.”
The badly shaken passenger apologized to the driver and said he didn’t realize that a mere tap on the shoulder would startle the driver so badly.

The driver replied,

“No, no, I’m the one who is sorry; it’s entirely my fault. Today is my very first day driving a cab.

I’ve been driving a hearse (vehicles used for carrying the dead bodies for funeral) for the past 25 years.”

Only very few moments in our life is spent in the experience of the present. Not only our thinking but also our doing are conditioned – fully conditioned.

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Stories coming under the categories of Gems Hub and Folk’s Track - shown on behalf of Guests are true/moral stories from Indian Thoughts Archives. Indian Thoughts have a proud store of unpublished stories from around the world which are being published at a regular frequency.

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Over the past few years, television has made tremendous progress in our country. Not only has the number of programmes increased manifold, but the quality too has improved greatly. Some of the programmes are really good and have given useful messages to the viewers. Two serials from which I drew important messages are Nukkad and Junoon, messages which I would like to share. The serial Nukkad was on the life in a street corner of a small town. All the characters of the serial were persons who could barely make their living. Some were not even employed and depended on the help of their colleagues. Some had developed the habit of drinking due to frustration. They were, at times, also exploited by vested interests. Overall, they were miserable people and had no apparent joy in their lives.On the other hand, junoon was a story of very rich people who had accumulated their lakhs of Rupees by dubious means. Many of them were engaged in underworld activities and had intense rivalries with each other. Outwardly they displayed affluence and moved around in the upper class of society. But inwardly, they too were frustrated, and often resorted to drinking as a result thereof.When we look at these two groups of people, some interesting observations can be made. In Nukkad the group as a whole appears quite cheerful and contented. They enjoy every moment of life despite all the problems they face. They try to help each other beyond their means. They happily accept the shortcomings of each other and genuinely try to help. There is no tension visible on their faces. Overall, the group, though beset by problems, is quite happy and enjoys life to the extent possible under the circumstances. The opposite is the case in the serial junoon. In this group, the characters are so busy amassing wealth that they have no time to enjoy life. The unfair, illegal means of making a fortune further adds to their worries. Not only this, they are always fearful of the police or of a rival or of their own men. This makes their lives very tense, rendering it totally joyless. Almost all of them have great tension in their family lives too. This made me think about the very definition of richness or poverty. I feel these are not at all absolute terms but simply the states of mind. I find it difficult to say which of the two groups is richer. If one is richer outwardly, it is very poor inwardly and vice versa. The first group, despite being poor, is happy, while the second group is miserable despite all the riches. And if we go by the ultimate aim of living, which is happiness, it is the first group which achieves the objective and not the latter. For true happiness there has to be a balance between the outer and the inner growth. But I feel that bliss, even if out of ignorance, is better than misery of any kind. From this point of view, the state of poverty has more richness.

A nobleman’s prized racehorse began to limp for no apparent reason. Veterinarians who were called found nothing wrong with the leg – no fracture, no sprain, no soreness – and they were baffled. The nobleman finally consulted a sage, a man known for his wisdom.

“Has anything changed for the horse in the last few months?” he asked.

“I changed his trainer a few weeks ago,” said the nobleman.

“Does the horse get on well with his new trainer?”

“Very well! In fact, he’s devoted to him.”

“Does the trainer limp?”

“Uh… yes, he does.”

“The reason for the horse’s limp is clear,” said the sage. “He’s imitating his handler.” The nobleman put the horse in the charge of another trainer, and the horse soon stopped limping.

We tend to imitate those whom we admire. The company we keep, good or bad, has great influence on us.

Personality generally means those qualities that describe an individual. Gordon Allport, a well-known personality psychologist, who extensively studied personality of individuals, their traits and characteristics, defined personality as “the dynamic organization within the individual of those psychophysical systems that determine his characteristic behavior and thought”. When we generally talk about a person as having a good or bad personality, we are talking about how a person makes a good or bad impression on us. We look at the characteristics of a person that stand out. Persons in our interactions with them are making positive or negative impressions on us and we make quick decisions on how we like them and can easily get along or not with them. We often observe their ease, gait, mannerisms, friendliness, and warmth. In a consumerist culture making impressions has become an art in itself as impressions in presentations, advertisements, and commercials sell products to be bought and consumed. Needless to say, most persons are affected by superficial impressions rather than substance. The word, persona, is a Latin word, that originally meant a mask whereby a person played different roles or characters on the stage.
And from very early on in life we are playing different roles on our stage that is the whole world. Personality then is our unique adjustment, that we think is helpful for us, and that stands invariably between us and our world. Our personality is formed by our fears and anxieties, domination or submission, aggression or suffering of aggression, and superstitions and rituals to deal with anxieties or unknown, often primitive, forces and elements. When various tensions arise within us, they motivate us to act in healthy ways to reduce those tensions, and our personality comes to a healthy and benign adjustment. A way of adjusting or responding to violence, for instance, changed the whole world in a positive way when Christ taught humanity to suffer violence rather than to respond to violence in kind. Non-violent civil disobedience, certainly rooted in the view of St. Thomas Aquinas that unjust laws did not bind the citizen in conscience, effectively developed by Henry Thoreau deeply influenced Mahatma Gandhi in developing the practical art of fighting tyranny and achieving legitimate human rights. Obviously responding to violence in two diametrically opposed ways forms two different kinds of personalities. Really who we are is what we do.
Generally Eastern personalities are considered to be passive-aggressive personality-wise. They try to hold unpleasant stuff within, and then try to release in small explosions or in one big bang. In other words, they are aggressive even when they are passive. Western personalities in general are less likely to have the tolerance or patience in enduring suffering, and more likely to strike out and be aggressive faster than their eastern counterparts. Of course, there is the danger of stereotyping, and the personality characteristics that differentiate the eastern and the western personalities are disappearing over time as the world is becoming one due to increased intercourse and migrations.
Actually I should have high-lighted love and truth more than violence and aggression. However, violence and corruption seem to be gaining more ground, at least in the short run, than truth and love. Ultimately truth and love will win. As the New Year is near, it is good to take stock of our own personality traits and dispositions that will determine the success of truth and love.

A woman brought a very limp duck into a veterinary surgeon. As she laid her pet on the table, the vet pulled out his stethoscope and listened to the bird’s chest. After a moment or two, the vet shook his head and sadly said

“How can you be so sure?” she protested. “I mean you haven’t done any testing on him or anything. He might just be in a coma or something.”

The vet rolled his eyes, turned around and left the room. He returned a few minutes later with a black Labrador Retriever. As the duck’s owner looked on in amazement, the dog stood on his hind legs, put his front paws on the examination table and sniffed the duck from top to bottom. He then looked up at the vet with sad eyes and shook his head. The vet patted the dog on the head and took it out of the room.

A few minutes later he returned with a cat. The cat jumped on the table and also delicately sniffed the bird from head to foot. Then the cat sat back on its haunches, shook its head, meowed softly and strolled out of the room.
The vet looked at the woman and said, “I’m sorry, but as I said, this is most definitely, 100% certifiably, a dead duck.” The vet turned to his computer terminal, hit a few keys and produced a bill, which he handed to the woman..

The duck’s owner, still in shock, took the bill. “$150!” she cried, “just to tell me my duck is dead!”

The vet shrugged,

“I’m sorry. If you had just taken my word for it, the bill would have been only $20, but with the Lab Report and the Cat Scan, it’s now $150.”

Note: In recent times, incredibly large varieties of diagnostic techniques are available. Neither the doctor nor the patient is satisfied unless the most modern, which is also the most expensive, test is done before an “aspirin” is administered.

In the field of medical sciences, “specialization” is the word of the day. There are specialist for the right thumb and the left thumb. It is almost sure that the simplest of diseases will be first categorised in the most terminal class before administering even a simple tablet. In most cases the situation is as simple as your duck is dead.

The Gospels of Swami Ramakrishna Paramahansa is the detailed record of informal conversations Swamiji used to have with the visitors to the Dakshineshwar temple. This work was very elaborately compiled by one of his close disciples. The original work was in Bengali and was subsequently translated and published in two volumes by the Ramakrishna Mission. They make very lucid reading and give in depth, the philosophy of Sri Ramakrishna through informal chats. While posted at Calcutta, I got these volumes and went through them. One of the commonly used phrases in these volumes is ‘Women and Gold’. Swamiji often used to advise his visitors to shun both of them. According to him, these two are the main causes of man’s downfall. Those who did not understand the significance of these two words and took them literally were often wonderstruck. They could not think of giving up their wealth or wife and many even stopped visiting him on this account. Those who understood the true import of these words were greatly benefited.
Here the two words indicate two tendencies, namely ‘lust’ and ‘greed’. Woman is a symbol of ‘lust’ while ‘gold’ is that of ‘greed’. These two are the main weaknesses of man and are responsible for his downfall. Therefore, there is a need to guard oneself from them, though not necessarily to shun them. Lust and greed have to be shunned and once we do it, both of them can be useful instruments in our inner growth. This is what Sri Ramakrishna meant while warning against ‘Women and Gold’. In fact, the word used by him was ‘Kamini Kanchan’, a literal translation meaning ‘Woman and Gold.’ Here a clarification is necessary, as some may draw an inference that the woman is being looked down upon. This is not true, even remotely. Hinduism, in particular, has given a very high place to women. It is only when a woman becomes an object of lust that the society gets degenerated. This is very evident in today’s context when lust for women has given rise to many social evils. Swami Ramakrishna meant only to warn against this fact.

The world we live in is very bad. This is what most of us have come to believe. Somehow I do not believe so. I am of the view that the world is very good. And to be cautious, at least my world is very good. What does it mean? It means that even if the entire world is not good, one can always create his own good world. After all one does not live in the whole world. Your own world is very small and it can always be made good even if you are not able to make the entire world good. I will explain it further. Kanpur is a dirty city. Kanpurites will excuse me but this is what they themselves say. The effort should be to make Kanpur clean and all should strive for it. But if for some reason, we are not able to do so, what is the option? The option is to keep our mohalla clean, and suppose even that is not possible, the next option is to keep our home clean. Also in order to make the city clean, the process has to be begun from our homes. If homes are not clean, there is no question of the city being clean. After all there are beautiful homes in Kanpur also, staying where one will forget all the dirtiness of Kanpur. The same is the case with the world also. There are people among whom you will forget all the bad things of this world. You will then see only the good world. Then why not look for these people and be in their company? Who can prevent you from making good friends? After all it is your right to choose your friends, hobbies and life style. This is what constitutes your own small world. And so if the entire world is not beautiful, don’t bother. Create your own beautiful world. Having created your own good, beautiful world, you can proceed, to higher entity (equivalent to mohalla in a town). For a businessman it may be his business circle, for a serviceman it may be his office and so on. Without craving for results, one can always make an effort to make things better at all the places where he goes. This reminds me of a saying by Oscar Wilde which goes like this: ‘There are people who create happiness wherever they go, others whenever they go”,Let us belong to the first category of people. “When someone strikes you, glorify the pain; be grateful that you have a chance to prove your stead fastness and loyalty. A person's test of strength and wisdom rests on this-how great is his sense of equilibrium under stress. A man must have so much balance, so much wisdom that he can withstand all the onslaughts of life.” Swami Paramananda

Since change always leads to something that is not changing, then the question arises is whether the changing and the not changing are different entities or not. The answers to this question can be classified into three categories. The first category believes that the changing and the non-changing are entirely different entities and there is nothing common in between them. The second category propagates that there is no difference between the changing and the non-changing and all such differences are only peripheral and absolute identity between the two can be experienced at every level. The third category explains that there are certain changing entities amidst something that never changes. It also believes that identity and differences are equally important and cannot be avoided. The first category of philosophical understandings paved the way for the emergence of a heap of philosophical systems. Such systems in Indian philosophy have been classified into a philosophical stream named ‘dvaita’ (duality). On the contrarory, the second category believes in diversity but everything that appears in diversified manner is nothing but the manifestation of one and the same reality. This system of thought is quite unique to Indian ‘darsana’ (nearest meaning ‘sight’, in the sense seeing from the root – duly explained later) and it is technically known as ‘advaita’. The third category of thought has been systemized by Aristotle the Greek philosopher and it has been manifested in various forms in Europe as well as in the Indian Systems. In India, that category of thought has been classified as ‘visishtadvaita’ (nearest meaning – special non-duality). These three positions are the result of the basic approaches to the understanding of the reality in and around us. A fourth category is not practically and logically possible. That is why these categories of thoughts in Indian Systems are known as Vedanta which means, the beginning and the end of our experiences. That is, human experiences begin with duality and develop into proliferation of thoughts and streams that culminate into the logic of identity in differences, ultimately ending up in the experience of absolute identity. That is why the Indian Systems of thoughts divide categories of understanding of reality into dvaita (dualism), visishtadvaita (nondualism and dualism together) and advaita (non-dualism – absolute identity).

A great warrior did not return from the hunt. His family finally gave him up for dead. His youngest child but each day would ask, “Where is my father? Where is my father?”

The child’s older brothers, who were magicians, finally went forth to find him. They came upon his broken spear and a pile of bones. The first son assembled the bones into a skeleton; the second son put flesh upon the bones; the third son breathed life into the flesh.

The warrior arose and walked into the village where there was great celebration. He said,

“I will give a fine gift to the one who has brought me back to life.”

Each one of his sons cried out, “Give it to me, for I have done the most.”

“I will give the gift to my youngest child,” said the warrior.

“For it is this child, who saved my life. A man is never truly dead until he is forgotten!”

Whatever be the definition given to the term theft, stealing
has been considered as an unethical act by every religionas well as all systems
of law. The Indian term to abstain from stealing is ‘Asteya’.

‘Why should we ask the society to abstain from stealing?’ is
a question to be answered by the philosophers of ethics. Imagine that everyone
in a society practices theft. It is needless to say that no one can lead a
normal life in such a society. A society in which everyone practices theft can
create only confusion. Nobody can lead a normal and peaceful life in a confused
state of affairs. Therefore the primary requirement of the normal human
existence is order rather than chaos.

The primary duty of every ruler, whatever is the nature of
the theory of statecraft, has to ensure law and order; that is to provide
conditions for the existence and co-existence of one and all.

Asteya, specifically demands everyone not only
to take something of somebody either by force or consent but also to give up
everything that is essential to ensure ones’ own existence. In this sense Asteyaspecifically says that one has to
regulate oneself to fix his or her minimum as a prelude to establish law and
order in a civic society. In short law and order can be maintained properly not
by the police force but by the self regulating individuals who firmly believes
in virtues.

Note: Asteyais a Sanskrit word that means
non-stealing and it is an important principle of Hinduism and is a vow taken by
Indian spiritual aspirants. Asteya means much more than the Biblical
commandment ‘Thou shall not steal’. Asteya
refers to not stealing, not coveting, non hoarding as well as not obstructing
other people’s desires in life.

‘The ultimate goal of democracy will be the emergence of an Integrated World Order wherein every human person will be loved, cherished and respected by every other person as someone unique and precious, and wherein ‘love’, and not ‘control’, will be the basic governing principle…. ‘The resources of the world will be shared by all human beings with mutual love, concern and respect. Then, only then, will the world enjoy a true democracy and abiding peace….‘Enlightened National Politics, or ENP in short, my son, is a ‘millennium leap’ forward in our quest for a higher form of true and sustainable democracy. It is also a new step in humanity’s quest for transforming the world into a New Creation, a Navasrushi, of love, unity, peace and joy.”He began: ‘ENP, my beloved son, is envisaged to be value-based and vision-oriented politics that will see the whole nation as one large family bound with a common destiny. It will be politics based on the values of truth, non-violence, sacrifice and service that are common to religions in India, and on the national values of justice, liberty, equality and fraternity that are enshrined in the Preamble of the Indian Constitution. ‘ENP will be non-violent politics wherein the Fundamental Duties of Indian citizens will be given greater importance than their Fundamental Rights. ENP will aim at spiritualization and divinization of economics and politics in India….‘We must remember that in a Sovereign Democratic Republic like India, economics and politics are interdependent and interrelated like two sides of a coin. As we had seen earlier, all economic decisions are political decisions, and all political decisions are influenced by economic considerations.

One cannot be separated from the other. Both need to be made citizen-friendly, value-based and vision-oriented. Economics and politics need to complement and supplement one another…..‘Winning the economic, social and moral freedoms that are yet to be won for India will be the final goal of Enlightened National Politics. We have seen what Mahatma Gandhi had pointed out in his letter written on 27th January 1948, just three days before his martyrdom. Let us recollect his words: “Congress has won political freedom, but it has yet to win economic freedom, social and moral freedoms. These freedoms are harder, than the political, if only because they are constructive, less exciting and not spectacular”…This unfinished task in fact, as we have seen, calls for a Second Freedom Struggle, an Integral Revolution, which will be much more challenging than the first that got us the political freedom from the British….. ‘Though political power is handed over by the British to the Indian Government, it is still stuck there. It is yet to reach the people. The Government employees and political leaders are enjoying the powers and privileges of our political freedom…They also sometimes behave as if they are the rulers of Independent India, and that they own everything in the country… ‘When the British were ruling India, people called the Government officials ‘Sahibs’ with fear and awe…

Today also ordinary people call Government officials ‘Sahibs’… For them, the British ‘Sahibs’ are today replaced by Indian ‘Sahibs’…who are often more corrupt and cruel, and unapproachable than the British…‘Political freedom means nothing to the poor millions of India. There are many old people in our country who wished the British to come back! They believe that the British ‘Sahibs’ were less corrupt and more friendly than the Indian ‘Sahibs’ today……. ‘Hunger-free, caste-free and corruption-free India’ is to be the basic goal and motto of ENP….. The final goal, as I mentioned earlier, is the economic, social and moral freedoms of India…..The Fundamental Duties of Indian citizens as laid down under Article: 51-A is the Constitutional foundation of ENP…‘ENP as envisaged by me will have four important constituents. These will be: an enlightened political ideology termed ‘Democratic Federalism’, a 9-point common minimum socio-economic development agenda termed ‘Gandhian Navaratna’, sixteen ‘Principles of Enlightened Governance’ and five ‘Basic Parameters for MPs and MLAs’. These four key constituents are like the four pillars of ENP……